I asked my boys what they'd like to marble and they all agreed a dollar store mug sounded just fine. Not entirely sure what I was getting myself into I did look at LOTS of other pins on how to nail polish marble and tips for better nail polish marbling.

When I felt like I knew all I was going to know I gathered the boys around and summarized what I had learned.

Basically we were going to use one of our science/school bowls that we don't ever eat out of and fill it with warm to hot water; this allows more time to work the nail polish.

Working close to the surface of the water we drizzled our nail polish and used a toothpick to swirl it around then dunked our mug in the nail polish. We have to work fast because once the nail polish dries it will not attach to the mug.

Some mugs we dipped two or three times until we had an effect we liked. We always made sure to clean any nail polish off the surface of the water and re-filled our bowl anytime the water began cooling off.

Any mistakes we made (like getting nail polish IN or around the rim of the cup) we removed with nail polish remover. A few times we had some larger blobs of polish but I just used a damp towel and gently blotted the spot until I had either removed the blob of polish or sort of smeared it back into the design.

Blotting a blog of polish off the side.

Prepping the water for another dip.

We set them upside down to dry.

My older two boys decided they don't want to use their mugs for drinking but to put in their rooms and hold pens, pencils and markers so they could decorate right up to the rim.

Evan and I would like to use ours so I went through the inside and the upper inch or so all the way around the mug with some nail polish remover to make sure we don't have nail polish anywhere the drink or our mouths will go.

These are so cute! I love that you turmed it into a family science project. It would be fun to have them try one with cold water and brainstorm why it didn't work. Then make the successful ones. Thanks for the awesome idea and easy tutorial!